DETROIT — It’s now a daily occurrence. The Miggy questions. No, not the “Is Miguel Cabrera the best right-handed hitter of all time” questions, although those are just as frequent.

Rather it’s the “Is Cabrera OK?” ... “Is he getting better?” ... “Is he in the lineup?” ... “Should he be playing, if he’s not 100 percent?” questions. Every day.

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Every single one ... on some interminable Groundhog Day-style loop.

Starting well before the All-Star break, more than a month ago.

A day after he looked pained on his game-ending strikeout, there were questions before Wednesday’s game, as well as after he’d contributed three RBI to a 7-1 win. There will likely be more Thursday, even though it appears he’s down to just one injury, and getting better.

“I’m certainly not trying to slight his performance, but I’ve run out of stuff to say. ... It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it. I just don’t know what to say that I haven’t already said,” manager Jim Leyland said recently.

“If you’re not careful, I can be addressing that every day.”

That specifically was about the ‘greatest ever’ questions, although it applies to both.

There’s not a whole lot of new ground that can be plowed here.

Cabrera’s been dealing with soreness in his abdominal/hip flexor area for weeks, then tacked on a sore knee and sore shin from fouling balls off them in the monumental showdown with Mariano Rivera nearly two weeks ago.

Most days he feels better, to some extent. And most days he ends up probably feeling a little bit worse to some extent.

Tuesday night, it was a bit worse, as he visibly grimaced during his game-ending at-bat.

“Well, you’re always concerned about him. Obviously been playing hurt for a while now. I wasn’t sure how he was going to be today, but he says he feels better today than yesterday,” Leyland said before Wednesday’s game. “That was good news.”

But the point is, the Tigers wouldn’t be playing Cabrera if he wasn’t producing, and they wouldn’t be playing him if he wasn’t eventually going to get better while in the lineup.

“Kevin Rand (the Tigers’ head trainer), my question to him was — because we worry about it — can this guy get better, with this injury, if he’s playing? Yes. Because if it wouldn’t get better when he’s playing, then we’d DL him to get it right,” Leyland said before one recent game.

“He’s feeling better. I check with him every day on it. It’s still the stomach issue, still a big factor, but it’s better and it’s is getting better.”

As much as people have speculated that it would be better in the long run for the Tigers to shut Cabrera down, and put him on the disabled list, that’s never really been an option that the Tigers have entertained.

“I don’t think that was ever an issue, ever a consideration, as long as he felt like he was fine to play. With some restrictions, obviously. I don’t think that was ever a consideration,” Leyland said Wednesday.

“However, if there was a day — I mean, there were some days he didn’t play, obviously. Any time you felt like a player wouldn’t be able to play, you wouldn’t play him. ... The players are always honest with you. The players really don’t play if they can’t play. ...

“Miggy is obviously ready to go. This is never something where you would say ‘Hey, you go out there under any circumstances.’ We would never do that. I don’t know anybody that does.”

It wasn’t offensive prowess like Cabrera’s that dominated the game early, though.

The game was scoreless through the first six innings, as Twins starter Carlos Correia and Anibal Sanchez dueled head-to-head. Neither would escape the seventh inning, though.

Detroit mustered just six singles before the seventh, while the Twins mounted futile two-out rallies in each of the first four innings, before connecting on a fifth in the top of the seventh.

A two-out walk to Pedro Florimon in the seventh inning proved to be Sanchez’s downfall, after he’d retired nine straight. Florimon stole second and came home on an RBI single by Brian Dozier to make it 1-0 Twins.

“He’s tough, and I’ve gone on record saying he’s one of the toughest players I’ve ever managed. In big situations, he gets tougher,” Leyland said of Hunter. “Doesn’t always mean he’s going to be successful, but he knows how to grind out a tough at-bat against a good pitcher, and I think that’s one of his biggest assets, and that’s probably why he’s been so successful for a long time.”

“So pumped up, so pumped up,” Hunter said. “If you don’t have that passion, that adrenaline for the game, I think something’s wrong with you.”

After an intentional walk to Cabrera, Prince Fielder would alertly reach base on a third-strike passed ball, and Hunter just as alertly cruised around home to score on the play, since no Twins player covered the plate.

“Man, you know what? That’s the only way I know how to play. I was always told by Kirby Puckett, ‘Be a hyena, always take advantage of the weak link.’ I saw the pitcher sitting there waiting, looking at the play and the plate was wide open, home plate was wide open. I just took a dive,” Hunter said. “That play never developed if Prince doesn’t run. He did what he had to do to make him throw the ball and I was able to score right there.”

Victor Martinez’s double to the left-field corner scored Cabrera, making it 4-1, before the Twins could finally get themselves out of the inning.

It would be even tougher in the eighth, as a pair of two-out errors on Dozier extended the inning. The first extended it long enough for Cabrera to clear the loaded bases with a double, making it 7-1.

“Well, he’s just one of those guys that he seems to be set for the dramatics on a lot of occasions, (but) you’re not going to do it every single time,” said Leyland, who immediately pulled Cabrera for a pinch runner. “The biggest thing for me today, I was pleased with his health. ... I was happy about his health. That’s the biggest thing for him right now.”

The Tigers would eventually bat around in the inning, sending a total of 18 batters to the plate combined in the seventh and eighth.

Drew Smyly got the win in relief of Sanchez, while Jose Veras pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for the save.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.